T-shirt Flap Nets Plenty Of Attention

October 30, 1987|By PAMELA DOTO, Staff Writer

COCONUT CREEK -- Inside-out or outside-in, drama students at Coconut Creek High School won`t be allowed to wear their controversial T-shirts at school. But the shirts have stirred up plenty of attention for their play.

Principal Ronald Wilhoit told students last week they could not wear the T- shirts to school; he said they were sexually suggestive and in violation of the code of student conduct.

The T-shirts were being used to promote the school production of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

The students countered that the shirts were a comic way to promote the play; they said the ban restricted their freedom of expression.

Then came the news media, with television reports and newspaper accounts of the incident. Wilhoit was interviewed on a radio talk show.

Both the students and Wilhoit are pleased with the attention they have received, and they said they hope it will boost sales of tickets to the play, which will be performed on Nov. 19, 20, 21. Tickets go on sale today.

``We`re having a ball with all this publicity,`` Wilhoit said.

Initially, Wilhoit had said that if students were caught wearing the T-shirts at school they would be asked to put them on inside-out, with the logo -- showing the back of an executive`s chair with a woman`s legs draped over one side and a man`s arm holding a cigar on the other side -- not showing.

But after a student modeled the T-shirt inside-out on Thursday, Wilhoit banned wearing them to school altogether because the logo could still be seen. The students can wear the shirts, however, to the play.

Drama teacher Laurel Linsley said she would not have ordered the T-shirts if she thought they were offensive. She said she ordered about four dozen of the $8 T-shirts and has about 14 left to sell.